The Suspicious Death of Jacob Landin Feat. Brother Eric Landin
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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. So today's video right off the bat, I have to say is very intense. We're going to be talking about the death of a child here. And that is always very difficult today. We're going to be talking about the case of Jacob Jeremiah Landin. It's definitely going to be difficult to talk about and to listen to I'm sure, but it is very important that this story is heard.

Oftentimes cases like this don't get the publicity that other cases do. But even though this video is going to be very heavy, I think you guys are really going to enjoy listening to Jacob's brother, Eric today. Eric has really been through a lot.

And I really want to show him as much support as we can. So I always like to mention, please keep the comments kind. People that are coming on this channel to tell their story are being very vulnerable and being blasted to a huge audience that they may not be used to. So I just want you guys to keep it respectful. And remember that Eric is likely going to read the comments and his mom and other people in his family. So please keep it as respectful as you can. Eric actually has his own podcast.

where he talks about several cases of children in New Mexico who have been failed by the justice system. His podcast is really awesome. I'm going to link it below and let's help him get up on the charts because he really deserves it. But let's go ahead and get into Jacob's story. So Eric and his mom, Brenda are

You can hear her tell her side of everything on his podcast. She was very excited to be a mom. She loved Eric so much. My mom and dad had gotten married really young. My mom was about 17. I think my dad was 20 years old. They had their first kid in 1978. So...

Randy was born and died shortly after his birth. And then I was born in 1980. Eric's dad was definitely not involved like his mother was. In fact, he was away a lot for work. He worked as a Pentecostal preacher and he was gone a lot for that. He would travel all over the country, sometimes for even months at a time. Which meant that we moved a lot. So before Jacob was born, I think I had lived in

four or five different cities, most of them in Texas. - So most of the time it was just Eric and his mom and she didn't work because she had to take care of Eric and she was alone, but they really struggled during this time while his dad was just off preaching. He left them back at home without food,

without a lot of money, and they never even knew when he would be coming home or if he would be coming home. Sometimes Eric and his mom wouldn't eat for days at a time. They did have a few friends that would help them out, bring them food. His mom specifically talks about on the podcast how one of their neighbors would leave food for them on their doorstep and that she was like,

like a hero to them in many ways. And Eric has said that if it weren't for people helping them out, he wasn't sure if they would have survived. Eric was very lonely, especially with his dad being gone so much. He always wanted a sibling. He remembers praying every day that his mom would get pregnant and that he would have a baby brother.

And in his podcast, he talked about how he told his mom he knew he was going to have a baby brother, that he had dreams of it. And she kind of laughed it off. But of course, soon enough, she was pregnant and it was a boy. His name was Jacob Jeremiah Landin. He was born on July 1st, 1986. And...

We were in Edinburgh, Texas when Jacob was born. And of course, Eric was thrilled. He finally got his baby brother that he had been praying for. When I found out I was going to be a big brother, I was so excited. It was probably one of the happiest days of my life. I had just learned how to ride my bike without my training wheels and we were at a park. I was feeling elated and super excited about that. And then my parents kind of kneeled down in front of me and told me that my mom was pregnant with Jacob.

And I remember running around and yelling and jumping up and down because I'd been praying for him to be born.

I was so excited. I think it was probably one of the better moments in my life. - So Brenda was a very small woman. She was only 5'1" and weighed 120 pounds. And Jacob was a big boy. He weighed 10 pounds when he was born and he grew really quickly. He was a big baby and he had a big personality to match. Sometimes with babies, it takes a little while for their personalities to show, but they said they started to see his personality after only a month or two. Eric said that he remembered him being like a little daredevil.

He was kind of a crazy kid. He had no fear.

He loved to laugh, but he loved to do things that were excessively dangerous. At least that's the way I felt. I was always a very cautious child. I didn't like to do things that were scary. One of Jacob's favorite things to do was we had this old wind-up 1980s baby swing and it was made out of aluminum and it was sharp for some reason. And I remember he would swing forward and grab something

the front legs of the baby swing and throw the whole thing backwards so that he would be lying on the ground. The first time it happened, everybody in my family that was there, they gasped really loud and freaked out a little bit. And then he just laid there and laughed forever. And so everybody kind of got used to it. We stopped putting him in the baby swing because he couldn't be trusted not to do that.

But he would do other things like he would pull all of the drawers out of the kitchen cabinets. And so there would be knives and forks falling all around him. He thought that was hilarious. Anything that was loud or dangerous was his favorite thing. And I'll never forget his laugh. He had this sounded like a little bit of a almost like a bullfrog laugh. It's hard to explain it, but it basically sounded like this, like which I've never heard anybody laugh like that.

to this day, but it still sticks in my mind. - And Eric was just so happy to have his baby brother. He loved him so much. Meanwhile, their father, whose name is Gene, I'm not sure if I mentioned that, he's not in our story much, but he kept traveling for work and he was not home to be with Eric and Jacob often.

in it all. And of course, Brenda was really struggling to take care of now two kids with no money. Eric remembers seeing his mom crying a lot and praying that someone would help them. That just breaks my heart. I mean, that's so hard to see that as a child, to see your mom crying.

in that state. And then to make matters worse, Brenda found out that her husband had had an affair on her and it wasn't a physical affair, but it was a strong emotional relationship that had been happening behind her back. And this of course took him away from his family even more, but that was the last straw for her.

She decided to pack the kids up and they moved to New Mexico. And they ended up moving in with her parents, Merlinda and Dalton Crawford. And it was really helpful because Merlinda was able to watch the kids while Brenda went to work. She was able to find a job at a local grocery store. And this period really helped her kind of get back on her feet a little more. But it did not take long until she reconnected with an old friend.

And I'm going to be referring to this person as Dee in this video. So Dee was actually one of Eric's dad's old friends. He was really close with him. His father was the pastor of a local church that my family went to. His sister married my mom's brother. His aunt is my godmother. So there are a lot of connections between our families. We've all known each other forever. And suddenly he started just coming around to check on me.

on Brenda and the kids. He knew all about them splitting up and he was kind of able to try to manipulate her emotionally. And he obviously had information from Jean that he was able to bring into things and seemed like he really understood better than he did. And he came in and just showered them with attention. And Eric said he really liked him at first. He was a lot of fun.

He had a very fast car. He loved to watch movies and eat candy and listen to good music really loud. And so as a young boy, that was something that was very appealing to me. I remember that he was...

almost like a breath of fresh air for us because my dad had been fairly neglectful as a father because he was so busy with his career that we were often left alone. You know, we really wanted that attention and that affection and that male figure in our lives. Anything I wanted at that point,

I was allowed to do. So if I wanted to stay up until two in the morning watching movies, or if I wanted to have candy for dinner, or if I wanted to go as fast as possible in that race car, then those were things that we did. And it was a lot of fun in the beginning. So one of the hardest things about dealing with someone who is a manipulator or a narcissist is that they are extremely charming, charismatic, and

and likable. A lot of manipulators use a tactic called love bombing. They do everything that they can to earn your trust, earn your affection and earn your loyalty. And it sounds nice and sometimes it can seem nice at the time, but it's really just a way to gain control over someone.

it's a disarming technique and it's very effective, especially for us at that time, because like I said, we were feeling a little bit neglected by my dad and really in need of some kind of attention in that way. And he filled that need and he did it masterfully. So of course, with Eric, this was easy. He was five years old. He thought

that Dee was really cool. We just felt that maybe he was a nice guy and he cared about us and he was coming to save the day. And Brenda was actually a little more hesitant about him at first, but eventually he won her over too. This guy was a master manipulator. He knew exactly what to do to get on and stay on her good side and win Eric over as well. And he was always around.

which was something that she wasn't used to with her ex. He also started turning on his best friend and started telling Brenda tons of dirt on her ex. Now, I don't know if what he told her was true, but it doesn't really matter because it worked. And she really started to resent her ex even more than she did before. And it wasn't long until Brenda started dating Dee. And that was going well. So within a few months, they decided to move in together.

They lived in a mobile home in Socorro, New Mexico, which is a very small town. And Dee actually had his own kids who would sometimes come around because he had visitation rights with them, but he didn't spend a lot of time with them. So most of the time it was just them four. And at first everything was fine. Dee was working as a maintenance worker for the county. So he was bringing in some money.

Things felt a little more stable. Plus, he was around more than Eric's dad ever was. But it wasn't long before Brenda started noticing that there were marks on Jacob. So it was within a couple of weeks that these strange injuries started to happen to Jacob. Bruises, bruises.

And she could never explain these injuries. You know, she would try to figure out how he may have gotten them, but it never really made sense. At the time, he was only six months old and he'd only been taken care of by Brenda, Merlinda and Dee. But he kept getting these mysterious bruises, scratches, marks, bruises.

all over his body. So in March of 1987, there was one day where D was supposed to be taking care of Eric and Jacob, but he also had his other two kids with him that day. Brenda was at work and she was not able to come home in time for him to bring his kids back to where they live. So he decided to do it anyway and left Jacob and Eric at home alone. Eric was only five years old at this time and he was left to watch Jacob alone.

He does claim that I was left alone with Jacob, which I feel is bizarre. I don't think any parent would think it would be okay to leave a six-year-old and a seven or eight-month-old alone together. It's just not good parenting. If that did happen, I would have some serious concerns about his parenting ability.

because a six-year-old cannot care for a baby. It's just not possible. And luckily, he loved his brother and was a responsible kid and did okay. Then a little while later, Brenda noticed a scrape on Jacob's ear. She took him to the doctor. The doctor said it was fine. It wasn't a serious injury.

But that's when Dee told her that Eric did it. He said that Jacob was crying in his crib and that Eric just walked over and picked him up and dropped him. Now, Eric does not remember this happening to this day. Is it possible that I picked Jacob up out of his crib?

and dropped him, trying to comfort him while he was crying. If we were left alone, maybe. But the thing you need to consider is that Jacob was a big baby. He was probably 20 pounds by this point. And I'm lucky if I was 40 pounds.

The other thing is that crib was very tall. The bars were probably close to five foot in height, maybe four foot. It still would have been too tall for me to reach in there and grab him and take him out. Maybe I could have grabbed a chair, stepped on the chair, picked him up and dropped him. It's possible. Like I said, I don't remember any of that happening. I don't think that I would have the

the strength though at that angle to be able to lift him out of the crib. A five-year-old should never be left alone with a baby. But Dee started telling Brenda that Eric was jealous of Jacob. That he wanted to hurt him on purpose. Which this caught Brenda by surprise because she had not noticed any jealous behavior by Eric herself. And Eric...

to this day, has no memory of being jealous of his brother. But again, he was five. If he was jealous and he just didn't remember something, that would be understandable, right? There was a lot of changes for him in just a few months. He has this new man living in the house. Maybe he was emotional. So Brenda thought maybe he was a possibility. Now around the same time, and this is a little confusing, so try to stay with me, but

But Dee's ex-wife ended up calling Brenda's ex-husband, Gene, Eric's father, and told him that the kids were being left home alone. And she suggested that he file a child abuse complaint. But Gene had heard that Jacob was fine and

never made the complaint. And then around the time that Jacob kept getting injured, they ended up finding sunflower seeds in his bed, just piles of the shells in his crib. And of course, it turns out that D, not only does he love candy, he loves sunflower seeds and always has them on him. But of course, D finds out about this and he blames Eric. He says that they told me not to put

sunflower seeds in Jacob's crib, but I did anyway. So then a few weeks later, after he'd gotten a scratch on his ear, Jacob's grandmother was watching him and she noticed something even worse. Jacob had a large soft lump on the side of his head. And of course, baby's heads are especially fragile and this is something serious that should be dealt with right away. So they took him to the emergency room and when doctors saw it, they said that this was deathly

caused by a blow to the head and he actually had a hematoma. So they had to lance it right away and drain the fluid out around his brain. So he had to be in the hospital for several days and this was really scary for Eric, scary for Brenda, scary for Marlinda. Babies are very resilient. Their bones are meant to be able to deal with a lot and it would take a significant amount of force to

to cause that type of injury. And when he was finally released on March 17th, he had to wear a helmet to protect his head. And he also had bandages underneath that. And when Eric first saw him, he was very upset. So of course, while Jacob was in the hospital, some of the hospital staff noted that this might be a case of child abuse. So they contacted social services and brought them in to review the case. And this is wild, but this caseworker

already had a complaint against this household. A neighbor had reported that a man was beating a baby inside. So it's shocking that nothing was ever done and I guess someone did come to the house and checked in with Dee and Brenda, but they said everything was fine after that. So Dee really pushed the story at this point, especially when social services was involved that

Eric was jealous that he wanted to hurt Jacob. He told Brenda that he saw Eric kick Jacob in the head. That's right, he blamed this entire injury on Eric. And of course, Eric has no memory of kicking Jacob. He didn't have that memory even at the time. - Is it possible that I did?

Sure, I think it's possible. Is it possible that I was jealous of Jacob? Yeah, it's definitely possible that I was jealous of Jacob, but I don't remember being jealous of Jacob to the point that I wanted to hurt him. I don't think it's likely that I would have had the strength as a six-year-old boy to fracture Jacob's skull.

and to cause him to have a subdural hematoma by kicking him. But after this injury, Jacob was really never the same again. Instead of a happy, bubbly baby that was excited about life, he became very fussy and sad, easily agitated, and he was even sick.

He was constantly vomiting. He had ear infections, tonsillitis, and then he had allergic reactions to most medicines that he was prescribed. So it was just a mess. But then there was one day where Jacob's grandmother lifted him up over her head, you know, as most parents or grandparents will do. Jacob always loved this. You know, he was this daredevil kid. He loved to be swung around, picked up. You know, he was always down for that. But as soon as Merlinda did it this time, Jacob freaked out.

He started screaming wildly. He started pulling at her hair, trying to be lowered down. And as soon as this happened,

She was shocked. I mean, this was not a reaction she was used to at all. She had done this so many times with her grandson. She knew something was wrong. So she told Brenda and Brenda was obviously very concerned. So she went to Dee and asked if he had been playing too rough with Jacob. And at first he flat out denied it. But then Brenda started to explain what happened with our mom and Jacob and how weird it was. And just kept pushing him saying, this doesn't make any sense. What is going on? He finally cracked a little and said,

"Maybe I've been playing a little too rough." So he picked up Jacob to show her how he normally plays with him, and Jacob immediately started screaming. According to Brenda, he practically jumped out of his arms to get back to her. And understandably, Brenda was very upset, and she told him to never play with Jacob again.

in any way, again. And he agreed, but once again, he blamed Eric for this. He said that Eric must have done something to scare Jacob, that it was all going back to this raging jealousy he had, when meanwhile, he was so excited to have a brother. Now, this is pretty upsetting, but at this point, Eric was sent to live in California with his dad.

Brenda felt like maybe he was acting out. Maybe he wasn't getting enough attention. Maybe his dad would give him more attention. So he moved and he had to start a new kindergarten with a new teacher. - I don't remember how I felt about it.

I remember being there and I remember the school. I think I might have been a little bit relieved that my dad was there just because I missed him a lot. But I don't feel like I fully understood what was happening at that time. So when he moved to California with his dad, his dad questioned him. He was concerned about what it was like living there. And he asked him what his experience was with D. He even asked if D had ever hit Eric before.

And Eric said no. But one time Dee did tell him that if he ever lied again about what he really did to Jacob, that he would hit him. But even after Eric moved to California, Jacob still kept getting these strange injuries. Which caused her to...

start to question and doubt what her boyfriend was doing and saying. Now, Brenda never actually saw anything happen to Jacob herself, and she never saw Dee treat Jacob badly, but she couldn't shake this bad feeling she had that maybe he was doing something to him. And eventually she made the decision to stop letting Dee be around him. And at this point, it became Merlinda's responsibility to watch Jacob while Brenda was at work. So she started to severely restrict

how much time he was allowed to be alone with Jacob to the point that there were really no days that he was alone with Jacob. If she was working, Jacob was going to be with my grandmother or one of my aunts. She would even switch shifts if she needed to, to make sure that Jacob wasn't alone with him. So I think she just kind of had a feeling at that point that things just weren't adding up. So for a while, he didn't have Jacob alone at all until April 9th.

So Brenda brought Jacob over to her mom's house around 10 a.m. before her shift at the grocery store started. Jacob was still sick at this time, but doing a little better. And he had eaten for the first time that day in three days. So that was good. So everything was fairly normal that day. Brenda was working. Jacob's at home with his grandma. But then his grandma decides that she wants to go to church that night.

but she didn't want to bring Jacob and the service started before Brenda got off of work. So she called Brenda to see if there was anything she could do. Now at this point, her shift ended in about an hour. So she made a decision that is her most regretted decision in her life to this day to bend her own rules and allow Dee to watch Jacob for an hour until she got off of work.

work. And she even said on the phone, what's the worst that could happen in an hour. So Merlinda dropped Jacob off back at their house with Dee at around 6:00 PM. But right after six, Brenda started to get a panicky feeling that something was wrong.

It got so bad that she started begging her supervisor to let her leave a little early, but the store was getting busy. So he said, no. Brenda tried to take her mind off of the stress by helping other customers, trying to kind of refocus her brain. She told herself everything was going to be fine. There was nothing

worry about. But then just a few minutes later, Dee comes running through the grocery store doors, absolutely hysterical, screaming about Jacob. He said something happened to Jacob. He fell off the couch and he wasn't breathing. And right as he tells her that Brenda looks outside and sees that an ambulance is flying down the street. And Dee says,

Jacob's in that ambulance. So of course she leaves right away. They all drive to the hospital to meet Jacob. And when they get there, the hospitals looked at him and said that this injury was too severe for them to handle. They simply did not have the resources that he was going to need. So they airlifted him to another hospital. He was moved to the nearest trauma center at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

And obviously everyone can't ride in the helicopter, so Brenda, Dee, and her parents all had to drive together 75 miles to Albuquerque. And I'm sure this was one of the worst drives of her life. In the emergency room, they determined that Jacob was in a coma. He had a massive cerebral fracture and a brain injury that was causing massive swelling in his brain.

As soon as he was stable, they took him for a CT scan. After that, he was moved into the ICU and then taken in for emergency surgery. And Brenda barely knew what was going on. It all happened so fast. She was just signing things and then he was in surgery before she knew it. And she just prayed that he would be okay. So of course, while all of this is going on, the hospital staff went ahead and contacted Child Protective Services and the police. When they found out that they had a baby in the hospital with a serious head injury, they came right away and they were there

from about 10 that night to 10 the next morning. They interviewed the hospital staff, the social workers, and the family. And they went ahead and made the decision to place Jacob in protective custody, meaning that he could not go home until they cleared him to do so. There had to be an investigation done on potential child abuse. But unfortunately, Jacob never got the chance to go home. On April 10th, 1987, at about 3.35 a.m., Jacob was pronounced dead.

He tragically died on the operating table. So the doctors had to inform their family and when they did, Brenda was absolutely hysterical. She could not believe she had lost Jacob. She literally had to run out of the room. She was frantic. The doctors explained that Jacob was really sick and near death when he arrived at the hospital.

They really did everything that they could, but they could not save him. It was too severe. Brenda was so upset, she ended up leaving the room again. So doctors were left alone with Dee. And they noted that he seemed more nervous than sad. And then he said something extremely strange. He looks up in a concerned voice and says,

This is all gonna make me look really bad. And of course the doctors were like, "Uh, what the hell?" They noted it in his chart because they thought it was such a strange thing to say.

So meanwhile, Eric is in California during all of this. And Eric's dad wakes him up at like four in the morning. And he tells him that something has happened to Jacob and that they've got to pack and head out to New Mexico immediately. Eric was six years old at the time, so he did not understand what was happening. He only knew that his dad was very upset and that they had to hurry. So they arrive at the airport just before noon when they land Brenda D.,

and her parents are waiting for them. And the state police were also there waiting for them, along with Sue DeWalt, who was the lead investigator on the case. I remember when we got off the plane, just the sadness in my mom's face. I think she was definitely dealing with a lot of grief and confusion. And they immediately took Eric...

into another room so that he wouldn't have the opportunity to talk with Brenda or Dee at all. At least that was the idea. But before Eric went in, Dee pulls him aside and said, "Don't you lie. Don't you dare lie. You know what happens to people who lie." And Eric is six years old. He's terrified. So this really scares him. - I remember being very upset

and feeling like I was somehow responsible for what happened to Jacob. And the police questioned me and asked me if I had hurt Jacob, if I had hit Jacob, if I had kicked Jacob. They asked me if my mom's boyfriend had ever hit me.

And my answer was no, but he acts like he's going to all the time. And then they asked about how Jacob had hurt his head from the first injury. So he started getting really upset and told the police that, you know, he didn't hurt his brother if that's what they were getting at. He said he didn't know who had done it. When they asked me if I hit Jacob, they said that I got pretty agitated.

And I said, no. And when they asked me if I knew who had hurt Jacob, I said, I don't know. And at this point, Eric was really scared. He still did not know that Jacob was dead. He just thought that something had happened to Jacob and that he was possibly going to go to jail. I mean, he was really confused. He thought there was a chance that he would get in trouble. But of course, even if Eric was the one who had hurt Jacob the times before, it did not make sense for this last injury. Eric was in California when it happened.

So someone else was obviously hurting him now. And then Eric found out that Jacob died. He was beyond devastated. And even worse, he started to think that maybe he did something to him. I mean, he was super confused. It's just so much for a six-year-old to process. Being interrogated was probably one of the most terrifying things that I've ever gone through. Especially when you're young, you just don't have a lot of cognition to understand things.

everything that's happening. It was pretty intimidating. I was pretty much convinced that I was going to jail because that's what I associated the police with. I remember feeling very responsible for what happened to Jacob. I still have a lot of guilt and a lot of shame related to the whole situation. It has stayed with me even to this day. I know I didn't do anything to hurt Jacob, but it hurts to think that

People thought I did, and it hurts to think that I could have hurt him because I never would have wanted to hurt him. - So the police questioned the rest of the family too, and they questioned the hospital staff. Investigators asked Brenda if she thought that Dee was capable of doing this to her son, and she said, "I don't think so." But this answer would come back to haunt her.

In the future. At some point after Jacob died, Dee did spend one night in jail, but he was never charged with anything. So after all this happened, Brenda broke up with Dee. Her and Eric moved out. And at the time, Eric didn't know this, but even after she had left, he basically started stalking her. He would follow her around, he would call the house, try to figure out where she was, who she was with. Dee would send her letters all the time harassing her.

And in one of these letters, he actually asked her to meet him at Jacob's gravesite. This was very strange to her. She thought it was a very odd request for him to want to meet there, of all places. And luckily, she never went. You know, I can't really answer why he wanted my mom to go to the graveyard. I can only speculate. I can tell you that the graveyard in Socorro is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's in town still, but there's not a lot of things around there. There's not a lot of homes around there. And so...

Yeah.

as a means to get her there. It just seems, I mean at the best it's insensitive and at the worst it's pretty devious. She tried ignoring him but he just wouldn't let up. He kept contacting her and one day he followed her back to her parents house where they were living. But when he got there Eric's grandfather came storming out and basically chased him off the property. And specifically he yelled at him, "Why don't you hit somebody who can talk?"

So that tells you right there that he, even back then, felt like it was Dee who had killed Jacob. And that was the moment that it all clicked for Eric. He realized that Dee was the one who killed his brother. Now this is very hard to understand and I'm sure there will be comments. I mean, I ask you guys not to, but there are always people who will and there's always people who pass judgment. But Brenda did end up going back to Dee at some point. And I know it can be hard

to understand this when you've never experienced an abusive relationship. But this is very common, especially with people who are as manipulative as Dee is. When you're looking at something like this and you're seeing that there's no action being taken by the justice system, even if all the evidence is there, it makes you start to doubt that

It happened the way that you suspect it happened. And so my mom, my guess is she probably pushed a lot of those feelings and doubts away and believed initially that it was an accident. I think we all wanted to believe that it was an accident. We didn't want to believe that this person was capable of killing my brother.

And so she started to date him again. And eventually we were living with him and she got married to him. It all happened pretty quickly. - So the police gradually just stopped giving Brenda any information about the case. It just seemed like everything came to a halt. Brenda at the time really wanted to know what really happened to her baby.

And she felt that at the time, the best way for her to figure it out was to go be with Dee again and see if she could get it out of him. There was one specific time that she actually drove him to a polygraph test. Eric went with them. They went to Santa Fe and they waited two hours in the car while he took it. He came out and he had passed. So he wasn't arrested or even investigated.

at all. And Brenda continued to stay with him. And after that point, the family never heard anything more about the case. That was it. They ended up buying a house together and Dee had his two children live there partially when they weren't with their mom. But all of their time, it was just Brenda, Dee, and Eric. The life was not good for them.

at all. Dee got more and more abusive over time. After they were married, it seemed to make it all worse. That's when he got really controlling and violent. Eric felt like he was constantly walking on eggshells in his own home. Anything he did could send Dee over the edge, even just looking at him the wrong way. - So once we moved back in with him, his behavior changed dramatically. He became very abusive. He was physically abusive to my mom.

almost on a daily basis. It was horrifying. There would be days where I would be sitting on the couch watching television with my mom and him, and I would look up because he was saying something and he would accuse me of giving him dirty looks. And then my mom would come to my defense and say something along the lines of, "He's not giving you dirty looks. He just looked at you because you said something." And he would immediately start beating her up. I often felt responsible

for her getting beat up because it was often something that I would do or say that would set him off. When his mom went to work, he would lock Eric in his room all day. And at first he didn't mind actually. He had his TV in there, he had his Nintendo, he had a little fridge with snacks. But after a while, his room started to feel like a prison. If I needed the restroom, I had to knock on my door and usually he had the music really loud so he

Sometimes he'd hear me, sometimes he wouldn't. If he came to the door and he said, "What do I want?" I would let him know I needed the restroom or water or whatever. And if he felt like I didn't or he didn't want to let me,

Then I wasn't allowed to leave the room. If I went outside to play, I would be locked out of the house until my mom came home. I wasn't allowed to go in the house. One day he got really mad at me because I'd used a sharp kitchen knife to make a sandwich and he got really angry and he shoved me into the clothes dryer and locked me in there for the rest of the day. Living with him was a nightmare.

Eric grew up with this. He got used to it. By the time he was eight years old, he was very used to the abuse from Dee. He was so scared for him and his mom's safety that he started sleeping with a kitchen knife nearby, as well as a can of hairspray and a lighter under his pillow so that he could almost create a flamethrower effect. And not only that, he had an aluminum

under his bed, so he was prepared. Life for him was completely unpredictable from day to day. They never knew when D might lose it once again. - It was the worst experience of my life, and I think that we're very lucky to be alive having lived through that. - Eric felt like he always had to prepare for

a fight that could be bad enough that he would try to kill him or kill his mom. And Dee started becoming more and more physically abusive with Brenda over the years. One time they had to go to this Easter brunch where Dee's dad was actually the pastor, but Brenda was covered in bruises. So Dee actually lined up Eric and his two kids and made them recite a story over and over again about how Brenda actually got hurt in case anyone asked, because she was so badly bruised and

beaten that her eye was swollen shut. All of them knew that they were not allowed to say what was going on in the house and they were terrified to do so. They knew that if Dee ever found out, there would be hell to pay. Several times when they had big blowups at their house, big arguments, they would call the police. But every time this happened, nothing would ever happen. Brenda would refuse to press charges because she was scared of Dee.

After Jacob died and he still got Brenda back, he started to feel invincible, like Brenda would never leave him. So their worst fight happened one day when Eric was locked in his room. He could hear his mom screaming the loudest that he'd ever heard her scream in his whole life.

and he was used to yelling and violence and fights happening around him. But this was worse. This was something he had never heard before and there was nothing he can do. He was stuck in his bedroom. So he ended up using a baseball bat to break the window of his bedroom and climbed out. He ran around the house and started throwing rocks at

at their bedroom window. Dee came out of the house and he was furious at Eric, so he started chasing him down the street. And Eric found out later that he had wrapped a wire hanger around his mother's neck. She had stopped screaming at one point because she was losing consciousness and him throwing the rocks

was a distraction. After Dee ran outside, she was able to come back to consciousness and get up. She truly believes that she would have died that night if it wasn't for Eric throwing the rocks at the window. He saved her life. Eric believed that if his mom was killed that night, that he would have been next. But Brenda ended up staying with Dee. They moved into another place together and life went on. But when Eric was around 11 years old, the sexual abuse started. I don't want to talk too much about the details of it, but

It was something that was really tough for me because not just the fact that I was being abused, but the fact that I was told that if I ever said anything to anybody, that he would murder my mom and me, and that nobody would ever be able to find our bodies. And I believed him because at that point he had proven that he was capable of extreme violence. And so I didn't say anything.

at all because I didn't want to die and I didn't want my mom to die. But around this time, D made a huge mistake. He started to try and groom Eric's cousin, who was only 14 years old. He would leave her creepy notes. He would call their house and try to talk to her. And he would tell her things like, oh, you're so beautiful. I just I really want to see you. I want you to come visit me. I can't stop thinking about you. He would say, you can't tell anybody that we're having this conversation because

Nobody would understand. So this needs to be between us. And he was trying to start a sexual relationship with her so he could abuse her too. But she was different than Eric and hadn't been so traumatized for a long time the way Eric had been. So she told everyone. That was what my mom needed to get the strength to leave him because I think my mom felt like if she was the only victim, if she was the only one being hurt by him, that she could handle it or deal with it. But when she found out he was targeting

my cousin, she wasn't willing to put up with that. So she left him as soon as she found out about that. And not only that, it also made her think, you know, if he can do this to my niece, he definitely could have killed my son. So she ended up going to a district attorney with several demands. She wanted for Jacob's case to be reopened and for Dee to be reinvestigated. She also requested an order of protection from the judge. And she also wanted for their divorce to be handled without Dee there.

And she had actually documented so much of the abuse and she submitted it all. So they went ahead and just annulled the marriage for her, which was good. Now this is really strange, but Eric remembers that he and his mom were granted a lifetime order of protection from Dee.

But there's no court record of this, so I'm not sure. But unfortunately, after reviewing it, they decided that they were not going to reopen the case. The DA claims that because Brenda had told them that she didn't think he was capable of doing this, that they just dismissed him. They claim that maybe she was only presenting all this now because she was mad at him.

So they decided that they would not be reopening this case. But this is so unfair because at the time, Brenda really thought that, and she was a victim of abuse herself. She's clearly learned a lot of new information and seen that he is in fact capable of having done this to Jacob.

after years of being with him, but they still refused. So in 1990, Brenda requested to have the files on Jacob's case released to her. And oftentimes they won't, but luckily in this case, they decided to. They gave the family everything they had.

And they learned a lot. First of all, they found out that D had actually failed that polygraph test. He just told them when he got out of the car that he passed it, but they never saw the documentation. And one of the questions that really stuck out to them is that he was asked if he had ever hurt Jacob. He said no, and that was determined to be a lie. Now, of course, a polygraph test is really never enough evidence to indict someone, but it definitely is enough to consider someone a person of interest. So I know that

polygraphs can be controversial. Sometimes they've been proven to not be very accurate, not be very effective. I know that there's a lot of factors that can change the outcome of a polygraph, but when you look at all of the other information, I'm not surprised that he failed the polygraph test. When you look at his behavior after the funeral, after Jacob died, when you look at just the whole picture,

The polygraph becomes pretty compelling. - Plus he continued to intimidate and stalk Brenda and Eric. He follows them all around town. He has stood outside of Eric's window before saying that he's going to kill him. He has thrown things at their house in the middle of the night. And Brenda was hoping that if they just dropped everything they were trying to do, that maybe he would stop.

And she couldn't take it anymore. She was being harassed by him and the police weren't doing anything to help. It wasn't until 2005 that she felt ready to try again. Eric was older now and he worked with her to go over everything. She and Eric requested a review of Jacob's case from a cold case investigator. And they said he was very thorough. The family has no complaints. They think he did a really good job with it. He summarized everything and said that

It was clear that there was sufficient evidence at the time to prosecute my mom's ex-husband. He didn't understand why that didn't happen. And so he emailed the district attorney at the time and asked him to reopen the investigation and to look at possibly bringing charges against him for what he did. The DA responded saying that not only would he not

Look at this case and his reasons for not looking at the case were that there wasn't enough evidence and also that there was a statute of limitations on the charge. And so the DA closed the case. Dee has changed his story of what happened that day several times. At first he said that he was dubbing cassette tapes when Jacob fell

And then in another version, he said Jacob was on the couch and fell off and hit the coffee table. Another time he was on Dee's chest and he stood up too fast and hit his head. Another time he said that he was taking Jacob to bed and he hit his head on an armchair as they were walking. So he changed his story constantly. None of these stories, though, line up with the medical examiner's report. All of those are sharp force trauma and it

It just doesn't line up or match up with anything, with any of the evidence that we have. So I don't really put a lot of credibility into anything that he says. The medical examiner's report is pretty clear. I think the fact that it calls out

blunt force trauma, which led to a subdural hematoma on the MRI showed to be about the size of the hand of the open hand of an adult male. I feel like that says a lot. It talks about the fact that Jacob had a broken rib and a previously healed skull fracture and that those two injuries probably happened at the same time. It talks about slight trauma to the buttocks area. It really shows that Jacob suffered a lot at the hands of this person, and he couldn't tell anybody.

and he couldn't do anything to stop it. But they also had that note from Jacob's doctor that talked about how Dee seemed not concerned at all about Jacob's death, that he seemed more concerned for himself. And then there was a bombshell.

Deconfessed. During the initial investigation, police had planned to give him a polygraph test the day that Jacob died. And when they were taking him in for the polygraph test, the captain came in and said, no need. We already obtained a confession. According to the report, he confessed to two different officers. But other than that note, there was no other information about what that

meant. There's no recording, no transcript, no signed confession, absolutely nothing. There were no details about his confession, what he confessed to, or the circumstances of his confession. When you add in the fact that he confessed to killing Jacob, it just adds another layer of evidence that's showing that

what he says is happening isn't what really happened. - So the cold case investigator ended up sending a letter to the DA and recommending that they press charges against Dee for Jacob's death. And he actually thought they had plenty of evidence that this would be a strong case. But the DA, for some reason, still refused to press charges. They said that the statute of limitations was upheld.

And they also cited the right to a speedy trial. But in New Mexico, the right to a speedy trial does not actually kick in until the person is charged. And Brenda was also told that they were afraid they did press charges that Dee would sue the county. So this was very painful and beyond frustrating for the family. I mean, they're being told that they have plenty here. There seems to be enough to charge him, but nothing is being done. Something is being blocked. The system was failing them. The system was failing Jacob, and it was heartbreaking to watch it play.

So to this day, Dee does still not have a record, even though I'm sure he's been abusive to many others and Eric and Brenda feel the same. They think there's no way it stopped with them. And of course they are more convinced than ever that Jacob was murdered that day by Dee. So for a long time, Eric didn't talk much about Jacob.

It was too upsetting and he felt like it would confuse people or upset them. Even his close friends, he didn't tell them what had happened in his life growing up. For a long time, he just wasn't ready to be open about it and for people to know certain details. But that doesn't bother him anymore. And he believes that now is the time to get his story out more than ever. And Eric says that he's not going to be silent anymore.

He has started a mission to raise as much awareness as he can about his brother's case. He has a podcast, like I said. I will link the episodes on Jacob so you can hear more details below. And he also covers a lot of other cases, some being cases of children who have been let down by the system in New Mexico. In New Mexico, we have a lot of issues working against us. The poverty level is pretty high. The education level can be low at times. And so when you couple that with trauma issues,

that isn't healed, that isn't dealt with, that isn't addressed because there are not enough resources. It creates a cycle of abuse and generational abuse.

which is a huge problem here. On top of that, we have an underfunded child protective services, and then we have a criminal justice system that is very defendant friendly, that considers the defendant's rights even at the expense of a victim's rights, which is not right in my opinion. So as of right now, Eric has asked them to reopen the case once again, and he is waiting for a response from the DA. He has said he, at this moment, doesn't want to push them. He doesn't want to send people to them or...

He doesn't want any of you to write letters or try to do anything beyond just signing the petition, which is linked below to reopen Jacob's case. But he may need more help for things like that in the future. So that's why I'm asking you guys to follow Eric. Follow what he's doing and stay updated on Justice for Jacob.

all the social media. I'll link it all below. He's got his podcast. Guys, it would mean a lot to me if you would go listen to Eric's podcast. I'm really inspired by him and I think you'll really enjoy it. It's called True Consequences. If you could check it out or maybe give it a review, that would be awesome. If you don't have time for that, a quick follow

on social media would go a long way. I think words of encouragement make a huge difference for families that are going through these situations. Eric says that the best way that you can help right now is to spread awareness about Jacob. So if you can share this video, share the podcast, share an article, anything you can. - I need Jacob's story to be told. It's not a well-known case and I need it to be. Media pressure works. We see it time after time and every little bit helps.

So if anybody wants to reach out to me, you can find me at trueconsequences.com. Jacob's voice has got to be heard. He was so young, he never even got a chance. And that's why we've got to fight for justice for Jacob. If Jacob was alive today, he would be in his 30s. He would definitely be old enough to be married. And if he wanted children, he'd probably have children. I would love to have him in my life to talk to.

to hang out with. His legacy is his story can be amplified in a way that brings attention to these problems that we have here. And if his story helps one person, if it helps one baby from

having to deal with this, then I'm glad I'm speaking out. It's my hope that his story gives someone strength that they need to protect themselves, to protect their kids. I hope that his story inspires lawmakers in New Mexico to change what's happening here because it's not enough to say something needs to change. We have to actually do something about it and we can't ignore this problem away.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.